The Mangrove and its Allies. 67 



their parent trunks. After this, fewer additions are made to 

 the roots, but the head begins to expand in every direction, 

 spreading its branches on all sides; these branches in their 

 turn, send down long slender roots, like those of the Banyan 

 fig tree (Ficus Lndica), which, rapidly elongating, descend from 

 all varieties of height, and reaching the water, penetrate the 

 mud, becoming in time independent trees ; thus a complicated 

 labyrinth of vegetation is at length formed, serving to arrest 

 the particles of soil washed down from the interior ; these, by 

 their accumulations, raise the level of the ground, till at length 

 what had been water, is converted into a salt marsh ; and what 

 had been a salt marsh, becomes progressively dry land, fit for 

 the cultivation of man, and teeming with fertility from its 

 copious intermixture with the exuvise of marine animals and 

 vegetables/' The author of this description, compares the germi- 

 nation of the Mangrove to that of the Banyan, in "- sending 

 down long slender roots ;" but it must be borne in mind, that 

 these roots in the Rldzopliora, are not spongioles, borne at the 

 ends of the branches, but are the true radicles, and the only 

 difference to the general law of vegetable life, is that they germi- 

 nate before leaving their parents, so that the long stick-like pro- 

 tuberance from the fruit, is the young root, which reaches 

 downwards towards the ground as far as possible, and when no 

 longer able to hold on to the parent, drops into the mud below, 

 and then sends out its rootlets ; the rudiments of which are 

 clearly distinguishable on the surface of the radicles, as they 

 hang from the trees. 



Dampier, in his voyages, says : " The Red Mangrove 

 groweth commonly by the sea-side, or by rivers and creeks. 

 It always grows out of many roots about the bigness of a man's 

 leg, some bigger, some less, which, at about six, eight, or ten 

 feet above the ground, join into one trunk or body that seems 

 to be supported by so many artificial stakes. Where this sort 

 of tree grows it is impossible to march by reason of these 

 stakes, which grow so mixed one among another that I have, 

 when forced to go through them, gone half a mile and never 

 set my foot on the ground, stepping from root to root. The 

 timber is hard, and good for many uses ; the inside of the 

 bark is red, and it is used for tanning of leather very much 

 all over the West Indies." 



In places where Mangroves abound, the propagation is 

 effected by the simple and natural process of the germinating 

 seeds dropping into the mud and immediately throwing out 

 their rootlets. The fruit, before germination takes place, is 

 described as being edible and of a sweet flavour, the juice of 

 which is fermented and made into a kind of wine. The 

 economic uses of the Mangrove are very many. A kind of 



